Sunday

We had some free time on Sunday morning, so we went for a wander around the downtown shopping area. I managed to get some USA voltage hair straighteners for a bargain $30. I needed them to help me cope with the humidity. I go seriously curly without them. Went into Macy’s, unimpressed, walked out again.


Sunday afternoon Jon picked us up and we went to Trading Musician, which is a fantastic music shop. They sell mostly 2nd hand stuff and they have a great policy where anyone is free to grab a lead, switch on any amp they fancy and have a go with any of the instruments. You don’t have to ask to try things out, you just help yourself. A lot of (most) UK music shops could learn a lot about how to treat potential customers from these guys. Mark tried out a guitar, but didn’t buy it. I fell in love with, and very nearly bought a kalimba (thumb harp). They were so beautifully made and sounded gorgeous. But I wasn’t sure if it would fit in my luggage, so I had to resist.

When they found out we were friends of Jon’s the guys in the shop very kindly gave Mark and I a free t-shirt each, which was cool, as I was thinking about buying one. Their philosophy is that it’s cool for their shop to get advertised around the world, and we were happy to oblige.

Next up was a trip to Jon’s favourite wine store. It’s a huge warehouse absolutely full of every type of wine you can imagine from all over the world. I bought a $30 bottle of local Washington red, which we had with dinner that night. And very nice it was too.

Finally, we went to Bedrock Industries, a place I’d found on the internet some time last year and had wanted to go to since I found it. It’s a really cool place. You can take your household glass there and they pay you for it. Then they crush it, melt it down and make beautiful art from it. I wanted EVERYTHING there, from the coasters to the huge garden mobiles, but I limited myself to buying an adorable hand-made recycled glass robot. They had 50 or 60 on display, but I knew as soon as I saw him that this one was for me. I love the look on his face. Slightly startled, like he’s saying “What’s going on?”

Back to Jon and Michelle’s apartment for yummy homemade 3 bean chilli and corn bread. I’d never had corn bread before. I so tasty!
Desert was strawberry shortcake Why it’s called shortcake I have no idea. It was a tower of sponge cake, covered in crushed strawberries and whipped cream. There was nothing short on that cake, flavour or height! Amazing.

After dinner we watched watched Death Proof another Tarantino movie and finished off the tasty wine.
We were sent off at the end of the night with 2 packs of cornbread mix and some chilli seasoning.